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Monthly Archives: November 2014

I like the Matthew Shardlake series. He is a hunchback Tudor Lincolns Inn lawyer, forever accepting work in political and dangerous cases that he should not (or cannot refuse due to the requesters being senior figures in society) and getting into trouble. In the background, Henry VIII is going through his last two wives and vacillating on political and religious matters, which mean the population have to keep up with his whims or be burned or executed as heretics.
I was pleasantly surprised to find another book of this series. I thought C J Sansom might stop at the last book, Heartstone. Let’s hope he keeps going. There is life in that middleaged lawyer yet.

This book, as with the remaining Century Trilogy books is a fascinating dive into the political and social landscape of the last century. The politics eclipse the characters on several occasions which is a shame as the author became too enthusiastic and went on and on about the politics. Whilst interesting, these are historical fiction books, not history text books. The same thing happened with his book, The Pillars of the Earth, with the intricacies of architecture of cathedral building overshadowing the characters. The books consequently could almost be halved in length without losing the story of the characters and that is no bad thing as my arms ach from holding the bricklike hardback books!

I loved this book! The little voodoo dolls predict what happens in the house of Brandt and has the protagonist and the ladies of Amsterdam in thrall. I like the fact that the protagonist comes in as an innocent and grows in strength towards the end with the story revealing the reality inside the house chapter by chapter.

The book ends in suspense. There seems to be a lot of information still to find out like what becomes of the little girl, does Nella become a merchant in her own right, does she marry someone who can give her a proper married life and who is the miniaturist and what is her story. Hope there is a book two as Nella’s story is unfinished.